Moto2: Canet Secures First Moto2 Pole as Marini, Bastianini Struggle

Qualifying for the Moto2 Styrian Grand Prix took place at the Red Bull Ring, with Jorge Martin the fastest after the three free practice sessions.

In Q1, Somkiat Chantra was the fastest, moving through to Q2 along with Tetsuta Nagashima, Hector Garzo and Stefano Manzi. 

An early lap from Aron Canet in Q2 gave the Spaniard pole position, his first in the Moto2 class in just his sixth intermediate class race. The #44 will be joined by the Red Bull KTM Ajo duo of last week’s winner, Jorge Martin, and Qatar victor, Tetsuta Nagashima, on the front row, the two of them looking to close in on the championship leaders.

With Marini and Bastianini starting further back, there is a great opportunity tomorrow for the KTM Ajo riders to make headway in the championship. The momentum is, of course, with Martin after his win last week, and he will look to build on that, whilst Nagashima seems to be rebounding well after a difficult last three races, which culminated in his crash last week. 

Augusto Fernandez took a season-best qualifying of fourth place and the Spaniard will line up tomorrow alongside Marco Bezzecchi and last week’s polesitter, Remy Gardner, on the second row of the grid; whilst Tom Luthi heads up row three from Hector Garzo in a season-best eighth and Jorge Navarro. 

Nicolo Bulega looks to have made a step this weekend, and will start from 10th place alongside Sam Lowes, the Briton hurt after a nasty FP3 crash, and championship leader Luca Marini who will have work to do from 12th place tomorrow. 

Jake Dixon has showed promising signs this weekend, like Bulega, and qualified 13th. The #96 will start from the front of the fifth row, with Joe Roberts and Enea Bastianini alongside him, the #33 starting one place behind championship leader Marini, to whom he has a five-point deficit. Row six will see Somkiat Chantra starting ahead of Marcos Ramirez and Stefano Manzi, who was the slowest of the Q2 runners.

Xavi Vierge was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2 – quite the fall after finishing fifth last week. Joining Vierge on row seven tomorrow will be Edgar Pons, after his narrow escape in the red-flag-causing crash last week, and Marcel Schrotter who six days ago was on the podium. 

Andi Izdihar, after his involvement in the aforementioned crash involving Edgar Pons, qualified 22nd  and will be joined on row eight by Lorenzo Baldassarri and Lorenzo Dalla Porta; whilst Fabio Di Giannantonio will start 25th, alongside Bo Bendsneyder and Simone Corsi on row nine. Dominique Aegerter will front the last row, ahead of Hafizh Syahrin’s replacement, Alejandro Medina, and Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin who did not set a time in Q1.